New painting, painted at the end of 2011 for the North Devon Arts exhibition: New Year New Work. It’s large 109x136cms and took three months. It was shortlisted but not hung at the Liverpool John Moores Exhibition 2012

Acrylic painting commissioned by Sir Timothy Ackroyd for his African charity Tusk. I met Sir Tim in June 2009 at Greencombe Gardens - the house of Joan Loraine (see also below). He asked me to contribute a painting which would be included in the next edition of the book "Ackroyd's Ark", the original to be sold for the charity at Christies at the launch of the book in 2010. Sir Tim didn't want me to do a plain 'portrait' of an African animal but was keen on my Wistman's Wood weirdy stuff. The launch of the book and the sale of the paintings appearing in it (including this one) will take place at Christie's in St. James' London on Monday 20th September 2010, from 6.30pm to 9pm. Tickets are £45 per person. Full details from http://www.tusk.org/ackroyds-ark-book-launch.asp

The new Judy Dyble CD,"Talking With Strangers", with my painting of Molly Hurford and Jock & Kirsty's bitch. The original artwork is featured on page 3 of this website's Archive. Photo: John Hurford.

June 2011 Exhibition at Broomhill Art Hotel

Muddiford

Barnstaple

An important archive collection of John Hurford's original psychedelic paintings, drawings and illustrations from the late 1960s and early 1970s was acquired for the Nation by the V&A in London in 2007 and now forms part of the collection of psychedelia and counter-culture art in the care of the Museum.

Stephen Calloway, Curator of Prints in the Word and Image Department at the V&A, said that the V&A started to collect Sixties psychedelic and counter-culture graphics at the time, as they first began to appear on the streets in London. Since then the collection has grown to become one of the most important of its kind, representing most of the major artists involved in the movement. The generous gift by John Hurford of more than fifty of his original drawings, paintings and prints from that period filled an important gap. "John Hurford was without doubt one of the most accomplished draughtsman of the British psychedelic scene."

Richard Loveday, Assistant Librarian at the V&A's National Art Library, says: "Like many others, I became an instant fan of John's upon my first exposure to his very English form of pastoral psychedelia. This was in the early 1970s when I was an art student. Its gentle, spacey spirit reverberated so powerfully for those of my generation attuned to that and it was obvious from the start that he was one of the finest of the original counter-cultural artists. I could never have dreamt that some three-and-a half plus decades later I would not only get to meet him, but also instigate a secure home for his work. Personal payback to a teen hero. Wonderful stuff.

Long overlooked by the professional art community, this type of graphic art has seen its value among collectors escalate rapidly. Consequently, often the finest, rarest pieces get dispersed and lost to view. That, combined with its perishable, ephemeral nature, means that an important part of the modern cultural record is at risk of essentially fading away for most of us. So this little windfall for the V&A is an entirely positive thing. Here it finds a perfect home in what is currently the best public collection of its type in Britain."

PHOTO shows Stephen Calloway, Curator of Prints in the Word and Image Department at the V&A, accepting the work from John Hurford (left) on behalf of the museum. Photo: Jonathan Hill, 14.11.2007.